Well its fall and summer is at it’s end….going to rain and get dark earlier. Time to get back to business…I have made some great lampwork charms for hoop earrings and have them up on our Etsy. I also have some new items up on our ArtFire…some great new focals.

I am going to try and have new items up in a regular fashion…and also blog more often.

I haven’t been to motivated to make beads lately. Life has kinda gotten complicated with some family issues with our daughter (life and death type issues). I took up golf to distract myself and concentrate on something, along with getting out in the fresh air…it’s been really good for me…I also decided to start taking care of me and loosing weight and getting fit.

It is almost like pulling teeth to get me out into the garage where our set up is to make beads…I mean its cold and damp out there!  Not a great studio by any means, I mean we have all the torches and kilns, tools and stuff…but ambiance sucks wind…Along with business is slow and making beads for eight years and selling them non stop, I think I got worn out…so making beads isn’t as motivating as it was for years, I mean supply and demand sure helps the beadmaker want to make beads…if things aren’t selling, your heart is kinda deflated….well in my case it is anyway.  The last couple afternoons though, when Dan gets home from his regular day job (he works full time)…we have gone out to torch.  I put on my iPod and pump music into my brain and hope the glass talks to me.  It really didn’t talk to me yet, but I did push myself to revisit making florals.  I hadn’t made them in a long while.  I wish I could find the muse in me that used to love to explore and play constantly….maybe personally I just need the time away? I am not sure…concentrating on the weight loss, fitness and golf has been good for the personal me…So I do figure maybe the economy is just giving me a break, a break after 8 years of working very hard.   The playful muse in me got lost somewhere in the past years when business and what was selling ran what I created.  Now I just feel…lost period when I am looking at all my tools and glass.  Well anyway…here is a sample of some of the florals I made.   I am rather proud of myself that I actually did make beads LOL.

and a group shot of some of them …. 

I think need to just make beads for the joy again…and if they turn out, take photo’s and sell them. I keep telling myself this…hopefully it will sink in soon.   I want to want to make beads…that is what I want more than anything…the excitement of going out to work.  Maybe a new nice studio?  Seems like so many I visit have such nice set ups….and well…mine is working in a very full crowded with junk garage.    Hmmm maybe I am on strike until Dan builds me a studio?   Who knows…if you know the answer let me know.  It could be that I am just dried up and on my way out to.   I guess I am just going through a period of change for me.  I can’t believe my mojo is gone forever…the person who loves to explore.  I sure hope not…if you see her…my muse…will you send her back to me?

Well its been a full six months now. I am doing really well, kinda at a stand still at the moment…loosing less, not gaining etc. I am exercising still everyday and golfing very often

So far since the end of September 2008 when I started I have lost 32 pounds. I actually lost some before that, before I bought my scale, so I am figuring near 40 total. I feel great! I am not out of breath and worn out just walking up stairs, or golfing…my knee is doing better and my back aches are pretty much nil.

Below a photo of me end of Sept and the one on the right a week shy of six month’s taken this month.  

Before & After...6 mo...difference

Big difference huh? I hope to loose at least 25 more pounds, end of the year is my projected/hopefully success time. We’ll see….it takes a lot more to loose a pound now than at the first. I won’t starve myself to be thinner…I eat healthy…I am counting calories…pretty much keeping track of not over doing it on a given day…and if I do, getting back on track.  Exercise is the real key though.  I am realistic in knowing I am in my late 40’s and its going to be harder for me to get to where I am going…size wise.   One thing I will not do is starve myself and make it so I can’t eat “anything”  Life is to short for that.  So if I reach a point that I just stay and maintain….I guess that might be where I will have to be happy.  For now, I am giving myself til I am 50.  That’sa good year and half….by then, we will see what my final destination is.  Until then, I will do my elliptical or Walking Slim dvd “Leslie Samsone” …one or the other at least five to six times a week…most of the time it’s six…I usually have a day we go out and about early and I don’t get it in.  I also golf, and will be walking the course more when the weather dries up.  I have to be careful of my knee, the hills and wetness can be my enemy…so I have to wait until the right courses and ours is dry (ours is very hilly and I can strain or hurt my knee to easy).

Last week I was golfing and it was nearly 70 on my back deck at some point each afternoon…this morning I am drinking my coffee and look out and the fattest snowflakes are floating down…so yes, spring was faux…not real, an illusion so I could enjoy golf for a couple weeks LOL.   So today on the Oregon Coast (well six miles in, here in Toledo) we have snow…

The Oregon Coast is having some marvelous weather…we had a high of 70 on our thermometer on our deck yesterday.  Of course winter will be back, but for now everyday that is sunny we get out there and enjoy.  I have golfed more in the last two weeks than almost all of last year LOL.  Sure I have new clubs and the bug has finely bitten me, but still…every day it is spring like and sunny I email Dan and say “you wanna golf after work?”  He-he…I sure wish this beautiful sunshine fairly warm weather would stick…but I heard a front is coming in and it is going to be back to winter like “stuff” soon…Not to mention the Chriki the hedgehog at the Oregon Zoo in Portland saw his shadow, so six more weeks of winter.   So hey! I am outta here come 3:30…hitting the golf course yet again, I finely think I might have the gist of pitching.

I snapped this picture while enjoying my apple on the front deck yesterday…a heron sunning himself by the water.

I have golfed off and on for years…I remember Dan buying me a set of clubs at Costco for “father’s day” one year LOL. Yeah, father’s day…hoping I would learn to like the game as much as he did. He would golf twice a day if he could, he loves the game. I wasn’t to bad for a few time a year golfer, I played in a family scrambles and so forth. My mind was not totally ready to “really learn it all” yet.  I played the don’t worry be happy golf game at that time.  Last summer though, something changed…not sure what it was…but I was enjoying it more, and found myself trying harder.  Probably the competitor in me.   Since loosing a bit of weight I find it even easier to enjoy the game and swing easier and not be so worn out.  Another great reason to finish my weight loss quest and loose 30 more pounds…It will help my game   I wonder sometimes if you just reach a certain place in your life when a game like golf, getting out in the fresh air and really concentrating on improving in something, but never being able to be the best…is something you need.   I need the distraction I guess.

For Christmas Dan bought me a new golf bag and driver. I love love my new driver, I had tried it out five times along with trying other clubs at Fiddler’s Green in Eugene before we finely bought it. It is the perfect club for me, and I feel like I own it, instead of just use it…if that makes sense. Dan also gave me a ping putter that I actually like the feel of, and I feel I own that club…the rest in my bag, I use…and don’t have an attachment to. The other day while golfing I came to the conclusion you have to “own” your clubs…or at least feel you like them enough to have the confidence when you use them.

Over the weekend we went to Fiddler’s Green yet again…this time to try irons…well, I failed…I told Dan I didn’t have enough know how to know if they were good or not, that the ones I have are good enough to learn…then when I know how to use and understand them I will try sets of them.   All was not lost though! I did get two new clubs, I got the three and five wood that match my driver. I love them!  They felt right, they felt like mine   So tonight…we are off to the golf course to give them a nine hole game try.

We golf at our small golf course here in Toledo…its just a nine hole course, very hilly, and a challenge with all the tree’s and water.   Olalla Valley Golf Course, Dan signed us up as a couple membership this year.  I plan to play and get myself a handicap so that I can play in the women’s club.  It’s going to be a big year for learning golf for me, women’s club will be a really big reach because I won’t have my caddy and guy that is feeding me info along…that person being Dan…I usually guess at the club to use and he lets me know if I guessed right…and he is my sky caddy “man version” LOL.  He helps line me up and explains how the ball will roll, go or whatever.   Basically he has been my teacher in learning the game.

Between now and spring when women’s club starts I have a lot of practice to try and get in during decent winter days…we do get some 50 degree weather with sun, its chilly, but we dress warm…and I can practice.   I do just fine off the tee…and ok in the putting…but the whole middle game is a big learn for me…so much to remember, so much to learn, so many darn clubs to do it with.  Ok…off on my golf journey…I’ll update and let ya know how I am doing. I can’t start gaining a handicap until April or something like that…so lots to do, learn and take in …so I won’t be “clueless” when I do start playing with the ladies

Still on track…and doing well…I have lost 24 pounds in four months. I exercise 30 min each day, either the elliptical or a Leslie Samsone Walking Slim dvd…both are great, yet different work outs. I had a hard time over the holidays and birthdays…I had Dan and My birthday and Thanksgiving all in the same week…then Christmas and a couple parties roll around. What happened over those weeks was I stayed “even” and didn’t loose, so I felt that was pretty good, got back on track and started loosing again.

I don’t really count calories, but watch and choose what I eat with consideration to calorie count. To lazy to actually calculate and write it all down…in my head I know I am staying within a good lower calorie count. Some days I splurge and eat out…or have a goodie…some days I eat lower. In reality I am eating the way I plan to eat the rest of my life. I don’t call what I am doing dieting…but training myself to eat wiser, lower calorie choices for the large part of my life…yet splurging on the good life now and then…and exercise, exercise is the key this time around for me.

A year ago I was doing Atkins and lost about this much weight…but I didn’t exercise. I tell ya, the exercise really makes a huge difference in shaping your body and how you feel. I feel so much better getting this body moving. I really notice it when I play golf. I don’t get fatigued…and I don’t hurt as many muscles cuz they are in better shape.

Well anyway, I did want to follow up on my aim to get fit by 50. I have almost two full years to go…and plan to look great when I turn 50. Hopefully by this summer I will be near my goal. I know I don’t mind trying on clothes nearly as much now. I tried on some Nike Golf Shorts yesterday and was thrilled at the size that fit. Didn’t buy them cuz I plan to loose more before summer short wearing weather. But it was great to see what size I was in.

Here is a pix of me when I started my new way of eatting and life style of exercise…back on Sept 21, 2008, 24 pounds ago. 

Below is a update photo of me taken yesterday, January 31, 2009…a bit over four months later…I still have about 30 pounds I would like to loose to hit my goal…then from there possibly another ten.  Just depends on how I look and feel…being older this time around, I am thinking my goal of 30 more pounds lost would be about right for me.

We have a few new items up on Etsy…a pretty focal

and a couple new Dan~O Bead sets!!!

I have been lax in posting new beads for sale, the economy has really gotten me down.  I do realize though I need to pull up my boot straps and keep on trucking!….We did give up eBay, feebay or whatever it is now days…I loved eBay for years and it gave us a name in the bead biz.  The rules and changes and cost have changed so much in eight years we finely gave it up in the fall last year.   Now we are selling on Etsy and Artfire.  Artfire is a great new site that actually is free…amazing huh? We have sold some items there and I am really hoping it will take off…so if you want to check it out and sign up….use this sign up link  (Artfire) and it gives me referral points, and I really would appreciate that

Winter has been rough on torching and making new stock…we do work out of our garage and cold weather is not a friend of oxygen concentrator’s…which we use to run our torches…but we do keep putting on some new things…and I hope to get them photographed and up for sale on Etsy and Artfire.

These are up on Etsy!  Set of Dan~O Beads…

A K~O Lampwork Rainbow Bling Focal

Up on Artfire

and a cool gift idea, hoops with removable charms!